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Overview of the Ecology of the Bras D'or Lakes with Emphasis On

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Overview of the Ecology of the Bras D'or Lakes with Emphasis On PROC. N.S. INST. SCI. (2002) Volume 42, Part 1, pp. 65-99. OVERVIEW OF THE ECOLOGY OF The Bras d’Or Lakes WITH EMPHASIS ON THE FISH TIMOTHY C. LAMBERT Marine Fish Division Fisheries and Oceans Canada Bedford Institute of Oceanography Dartmouth, Nova Scotia In this review of biological research in the Bras d’Or Lakes, groundfish trawl surveys from 1952, 1967 and 1999/2000 are compared and changes in abundance and distribution of major groundfish species are noted. The most common species were winter flounder (Pseudopleronectes americanus) and cod (Gadus morhua). The biggest change over the nearly 50 year span of these investigations was in the abundance of American plaice (Hippoglossoides platessoides) which used to be very common in the Lakes but were rare in recent surveys. The Lakes contain at least one, and probably two, resident populations of cod and are home to a population of spring-spawning herring. The unique nature of the Bras d’Or Lakes is emphasized in relation to the diversity of species they contain. Glacial relicts, survivors since the last ice age, can be found within a few kilometres of warm temperate species, persisting since the ‘climatic optimum’. The Lakes are ideally suited for ecosystem studies, for in addition to their unique biology, they are readily accessible and can be easily sampled on a daily basis. Ce document passe en revue les recherches biologiques effectuées par le passé dans les lacs Bras d’Or et présente les résultats d’études récentes et en cours. Nous comparons les relevés du poisson de fond réalisés en 1952, en 1967 et en 1999/2000 en notant les changements dans l’abondance et la répartition des principales espèces de poisson de fond. Dans tous ces relevés, les espèces les plus courantes étaient la plie rouge (Pseudopleronectes americanus) et la morue (Gadus morhua). Le plus important changement observé sur les 50 ans que couvrent ces études a touché la plie canadienne (Hippoglossoides platessoides), que l’on trouvait très couramment dans les lacs par le passé mais qui était rare dans les relevés récents. Les lacs contiennent au moins une et probablement deux populations résidantes de morue et une population de hareng qui fraie au printemps. Le document met l’accent sur la relation entre la nature particulière des lacs Bras d’Or et la diversité des espèces qu’ils abritent. Des espèces reliques de l’âge glaciaire y vivent à quelques kilomètres d’espèces caractéristiques d’un climat tempéré chaud qui persistent depuis la période de réchauffement médiéval. Les lacs se prêtent parfaitement à des études écosystémiques, car, en plus d’être uniques sur le plan biologique, ils sont faciles d’accès, et on peut aisément y effectuer des échantillonnages quotidiens. Introduction Many people are surprised to learn that the Bras d’Or Lakes are not actually lakes in the usual sense of the word, that is, a body of fresh water. At first encounter they have every appearance of lakes, being bordered by low mountains to the west and rolling hills to the east and, unlike the nearby ocean, appear to have no tide. However, a taste of the water and an examination of the fish caught by youngsters off a dock will quickly dispel this first impression. The water is distinctly salty and the fish on the dock will probably be a cunner (sea perch), cod or even a mackerel. This inland sea, one of Canada’s scenic highlights, sustains an ecosystem which is unique in many respects. The Bras d’Or Lakes are situated in Cape Breton Island at the northern end of Nova Scotia. This body of water of about 1,100 km2 is essentially an enclosed estuary with three outlets to the sea. The Great Bras d’Or Channel and the Little Bras d’Or Channel connect with Sydney Bight to the north, and St. Peter’s Canal gives access to Cheda- bucto Bay to the south (Fig 1). Only the Great Bras d’Or Channel is large enough to permit any significant exchange of water. The Bras d’Or Lakes watershed is about 2500 km2; this area added to that of the Lakes themselves gives a total catchment area of 3600 km2 (Krauel, 1976). 66 LAMBERT Fig 1 Map of the Bras d’Or Lakes indicating places mentioned in the text. Input from six rivers and restricted access to the ocean keeps salinity in the range of 20 to 26, whereas, sea water just outside the Lakes in Sydney Bight ranges from about 28 to 32. The Lakes are usually ice covered in the winter and surface waters often exceed 20o C in the late summer, particularly in smaller, shallow bays (Petrie and Bugden, 2002). The waters of the Bras d’Or Lakes are characterised by a two-layer system; a low salinity surface layer which has a wide annual range in temperature and a lower layer FISH ECOLOGY 67 of higher salinity in which temperature range is much less pronounced. In general, surface water moves toward the entrance of the Lakes and out into Sydney Bight and is replaced with outside oceanic water which enters the Lakes near the bottom and flows underneath the surface layer (Krauel, 1976; Petrie and Bugden, 2002). With the exception of restricted channels, there is little mixing between these layers except for winter months when higher winds and wave action disrupt the stability of this system. In some areas where currents and exchange rates are very low, the amount of dissolved oxygen can become quite depressed and in Whycocomagh Bay, anoxic (no oxygen) conditions exist (Petrie and Bugden, 2002;Strain and Yeats, 2002). A wide range of habitats, with bottom types ranging from rocky through gravel and sand to mud, can be found. These include marshy flats, “barachois” (small, shallow pond-like embayments, more or less cut off from the main lake by a sandbar), bays, inlets of various depths (some well-flushed and others anoxic), deep basins and a trench about 280 m, a depth matched only beyond the edge of the continental shelf. Given the diversity of habitats it is not surprising to find that the Bras d’Or Lakes are home to a wide variety of marine life. The species within the Lakes are, in general, characteristic of those occurring along Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast. However, the Bras d’Or is probably unique in that it is also home to both warm and cold water species which are rare in this part of the world. Ecologists divide the earth into regions, which have characteristic faunal assem- blages, which can be related to climatic conditions. In the Northern Hemisphere, these zoogeographical regions, ranging from cold water to warm, are Arctic, boreal, temperate and tropical. The boundaries between these regions are not distinct and arc- tic-boreal and boreal-temperate borders in the western North Atlantic tend to fluctuate according to the season; transition zones between zoogeographical areas are broad. Nova Scotia is in the boreal region, which roughly extends from south-east Labrador in the north to Cape Cod in the south (Ekman, 1953). Although a distinct assemblage of animals dominates this zone, Arctic species are intermittently carried south into the boreal zone by the Labrador Current, and conversely, temperate and even subtropical species are regularly carried far north of their normal ranges by the Gulf Stream. Most obvious of these transient visitors are pelagic creatures such as the sunfish and sea turtle. Less noticed because of their smaller size, but more common, are planktonic transients. In summary, there is no smooth, transition of northern species to southern species in this area of the world (Bousfield and Thomas 1975). Many of the fish in the Bras d’Or Lakes are resident there and most are demersal or bottom living. Migratory pelagic (living in surface and mid-waters) species, such as mackerel, herring and salmon, are seasonal visitors to the Lakes. Species that do, or did, support commercial fisheries are winter flounder and herring. The winter floun- der fishery ended in 1992 with the barring of commercial draggers from the Lakes (MacIsaac, 2001), and the spring herring fishery was stopped in 1999 because of the imminent collapse of the stock, most likely due to overfishing. Cod, mackerel, smelt, and eel support limited recreational fishing. Some invertebrates fished in the Bras d’Or Lakes are lobsters, oysters, scallops and rock crab. Lobsters are fished in most rocky areas throughout the Lakes but present landings are poor, which may be a result of overfishing or because of poor larval survival resulting from reduced salinity (Tremblay, 2002). Scallop and rock crab fishing is limited to a small area at the north end of the Great Bras d’Or Channel im- mediately adjacent to Sydney Bight. Here, the higher salinity bottom water entering the Lakes from the Bight is salty enough to support these 2 species, but probably not farther into the Lakes, since it becomes progressively diluted by low salinity Lakes’ 68 LAMBERT water. Oysters, once common throughout the Bras d’Or Lakes, have been seriously depleted on public beds due to overharvesting (Dennis, 2001) and are now found in quantity only at lease sites, where they form the basis of an important and growing aquaculture industry. The presence of the green crab, a recently introduced non-native species, is of great concern since it is known to feed voraciously on juvenile bivalve molluscs such as clams and oysters (Tremblay, 2002). Rainbow trout and salmon are also farmed in the Lakes. Despite the cultural and economic importance of the Bras d’Or Lakes to Cape Breton Island, and their accessibility, we have but a rudimentary knowledge of their biology.
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